The ruined fortress of New Slains Castle overlooks the small village of Cruden Bay, on the northeast coast of Scotland. The castle was built in 1597, and extensively reconstructed in 1836. For most of its existence, it was the seat of the powerful earls of Erroll. The 20th earl sold the castle to the secretive shipping magnate Sir John Ellerman in 1913; he never lived there, but leased the property for a few years before allowing it to fall into ruin.
Bram Stoker visited Cruden Bay many times. One of his novels, The Mystery of the Sea, is set there, and there is a distinct resemblance between the ruined castle and Stoker’s description of Castle Dracula in the novel ... Dracula Dossier Director's Handbook p176
Silhouetted against an expanse of fields that were once the scene of a bloody slaughter of the Danes by the Scots, the ruins of Slains Castle casts an eerie shadow over a rocky coastline where, legend has it, the ghosts of shipwrecked sailors emerge from their watery graves once a year.
Now the dramatic fortress, which fired the imagination of horror writer Bram Stoker and is credited with being the true inspiration for Dracula's castle, is itself about to rise from the dead - to become a holiday home for tourists ... Guardian, 'Dracula's ruin' comes back from the dead
In 2004 it was reported that the Slains Partnership was preparing plans for the restoration of the building and conversion into 35 holiday apartments. In August 2007 the scheme was granted outline planning permission by Aberdeenshire Council, but the plans were put on hold in 2009 due to the Great Recession ... Wikipedia
What if it wasn't?
Alternatively, what if it wasn't the Great Recession that killed the conversion plan?
The architect behind the rebuild is extensively quoted in the article, and claims to intend to rebuild Slains much as it was in Stoker's day. The exterior would be meticulously preserved. The interior would be something else again of course, but you can't have everything.
If you're wondering why this comes to my mind now, it's because of another Guardian article, this one much more recent, talking about the author's walking tour around Cruden Bay. It took him about five hours more or less, and he saw barely a soul. He ends up at the Kilmarnock Arms, a very pleasant hotel by all accounts. It's all part of the recent anniversary of the novel, which saw a record number of Draculas turn up at Whitby - but that's a whole 'nother story unto itself.
The Cool and Warm versions of Slains in the Handbook both suggest Edom involvement, but the Cool version presumes Edom abandoned ship some time past. The recent planned rebuild is discussed in a throwaway line, but not seriously explored.
Cruden Bay is much like Whitby, without the cliffs or Abbey. A small-ish seaside town, once known for fishing, now not much to look at. It survives largely on tourism and some runoff from North Sea Oil, and a significant portion of its current population are actually commuters from larger towns wanting somewhere a bit more rural and pleasant for the kiddies to grow up in.
Its big landmark is the castle, and if that rebuild had taken off it would probably be the significant employer in Cruden Bay. Slains was meant to have 35 luxury holiday flats, after all; Kilmarnock only has 19 en-suite rooms, and while they look perfectly nice it'd be difficult to call them luxury.
The castle's described as ruined, and while that's true the word ruin conjures up a desolate and picturesque crumbling monument, which isn't quite what Slains is. Slains lacks a roof and the interior's basically gone, but unlike Whitby Abbey the Germans didn't try to shell it flat back in the Great War. Visually Slains looks in relatively good condition. Like a house that's been abandoned for less than a century, which (broadly speaking) what Slains is.
Incidentally I tried to find out more about the drowned sailors mentioned in the article, but came up short. The closest I could get was this piece from Lippincott's Monthly which talks about smugglers and a peculiar Monsieur saved from a wreck, but nothing about a ghostly crew that emerges from the depths at a particular time of year.
Let's take two suppositions.
In the first, Slains was rebuilt shortly before the recession. That meant its grand reopening fell flat and the investors lost their shirts, but the building's basically luxury residential with all the mod cons. It's just a little ... neglected. The roof leaks, housekeeping isn't all it could be, and the on-site restaurant wouldn't know a health and safety inspector if one bit the chef on the leg. Thirty-five luxury flats built to the highest standards, struggling to make a go of it as a glorified Air B&B.
Meanwhile the locals that work there - of which there aren't as many as you'd think - are very unhappy but remarkably close-mouthed. It's as if they were terrified of something, but can't afford to leave.
In the second, the Slains rebuild was killed off but not by Edom. At least, not the current Edom. Elements within Edom influenced by the 1970s mole or whatever network that person left behind killed off the project, because the Conspiracy had plans for Slains and a rebuild didn't factor in. This is a one-hand-doesn't-know situation, where Edom proper has no idea what happened but Edom (Conspiracy influenced) did the deed.
Slains Rebuilt is nominally owned by a consortium of which the largest shareholder is a Trust based in Gibraltar. The Cruden Bay Trust is, through various cutouts, ultimately owned by Edom. Edom wanted to resurrect its vampire holding plan and thought that the most convenient front was a working hotel. There would be one set of rooms for the public and a hidden set for 'special guests'. This was largely influenced by Edom holdovers from the 1970s with one eye on Edom's history; after all, most of the anti-vampire blocks were already in place. Shame to waste them. Except the plan rather depended on the hotel being a working hotel, and it really isn't.
For some, like Hound, this is actually a bonus. This faction of Edom uses Slains as a kind of stopover before you get to Proserpine, a secure location for the ones who need interrogating but don't need to have E-Squadron step on their neck a few times before they'll answer questions. The soft-spoken drug reliant interrogators operate from Slains. Dr. Sykes (Field Manual p84-5) is often here, as is the archivist Henry Poole (Field Manual p.90-91) as Slains makes an excellent backup archive. Edom has collected a ton of research material over the years, and it can't all fit in the Ring/Exeter/Carfax/Asylum.
Slains In Ruins is, like its rebuilt version, ultimately owned by The Cruden Bay Trust, which in turn is an Edom front. The difference is, the faction of Edom that runs Cruden Bay is heavily influenced (if not outright owned) by a section of Edom that was tainted by the 1970s mole. This agency within an agency knew that Edom wanted to resurrect Slains as an anti-vampire prison, and they weren't having it. Instead they wrecked the project and did everything they could to put a Red Room in Slains. Whether or not they succeeded is a matter for conjecture.
What is certain is the ruins of Slains are a desolate, horrible place. Every so often a bloated pale victim of the sea is found floating near the ruins, and the people of Cruden Bay shake their heads. It's not the first time and won't be the last. All they can do is bury the poor soul discreetly, in the traditional manner, and hope they don't find their way out of the grave again.
These drowned victims coincide with a visit from 'the Londoners.' It's a different set of Londoners each time but they always stay at the Kilmarnock and their rooms are always booked by the Cruden Bay Trust. After a few days they vanish, never to be seen again - but their bills are paid, their absence unremarked on.
That's it for this week. Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment